Project Grant 2230610

North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (NC A&T) was awarded a $200,000 Project Grant from the National Science Foundation under the STEM Education federal grant program (CFDA 47.076) to develop cybersecurity education modules focused on adversarial machine learning techniques in malware analysis applications. The three-year award running from June 2023 to May 2026 will support NC A&T's research and development of self-contained course modules exploring topics such as adversarial malware generation, robustness of file structures against random perturbation, poisoning attacks and defenses, and white-box evasion attacks. An interdisciplinary team of experts in cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and education will design the modules using a guiding conceptual framework. The modules will be integrated into non-security courses such as artificial intelligence/machine learning or data science at NC A&T and its partner institution, Tennessee Tech University, or offered as an independent cybersecurity course. Students will gain practical and conceptual knowledge in security solutions for malware analysis domains through hands-on engagement with different AI/ML techniques. The team will also evaluate the modules' impact on learning outcomes and refine pedagogical strategies to promote diversity and inclusion in cybersecurity education.